


as the years go by (i imagine myself with you)

by the_gayest_witch (perfection_located)



Category: The Worst Witch (TV 2017), The Worst Witch - All Media Types
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Character Study, F/F, Light Angst, Useless Lesbians
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-13
Updated: 2018-03-13
Packaged: 2019-03-30 22:42:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 513
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13961628
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/perfection_located/pseuds/the_gayest_witch
Summary: The next year, when they choose their partners, Pippa is there, bright and smiling, at her side. “You- are you sure?” asks Hecate, and Pippa only laughs and laughs, as though choosing anyone else would be absurd.***a character study moved from tumblr. revolves around hicsqueak





	as the years go by (i imagine myself with you)

**Author's Note:**

> moved from my tumblr @the-gayest-witch-at-cackle , with additions and edits. ive renamed hecketty broomhead Constance bc her name is so similar to what they've renamed Hecate to for the 2k17 reboot. 
> 
> tw for allusions to emotional abuse

Imagine: Hecate, age 12. She is quiet and gangly and shy. Her cauldron partner is Pippa Pentangle, bright and pink and unfailingly kind. She is the first person to ever give Hecate a smile and a helping hand and expect nothing in return.

Hecate is wary, for that first year, convinced that this is a prank, waiting for the broom to be pulled out from under her. Cauldron partners are assigned, after all. Pippa has not chosen her. Hecate somehow ignores all the times Pippa seeks her out in the library to study. 

But the next year, when they choose their partners, Pippa is there, bright and smiling, at her side. “You- are you sure?” asks Hecate, and Pippa only laughs and laughs, as though choosing anyone else would be absurd - and to Pippa it would be. To Hecate, it would be the understandable thing.

But it is enough to convince her that Pippa means all of those kind words and warm smiles, and Hecate allows herself this friendship. When her father writes her a strongly worded letter about allowing her social life to interfere with her academics, Hecate can honestly write back that she and Pippa are studying. Hecate firmly ignores the butterflies in her gut every time Pippa leans close to read a page over Hecate’s shoulder.

Of course, it cannot last - nothing does, not for Hecate. The broomstick display is happening the next day when Hecate is cornered by Pippa’s friends. She is threatened, she is taunted. She runs. 

Straight into the arms of Miss Broomhead. Contsance Broomhead, a woman with a strict demeanor and stricter expectations. Hecate will look back, later, and understand that Miss Broomhead never loved her - that the affection was manufactured. She will tell herself this, over and over. A part of her will always refuse to believe it. This is the part that screams loudest on the nights when she is lonely. 

Hecate sees Pippa twice, both times at teaching conferences. Both times, Pippa refuses to make eye contact, and Hecate averts her gaze every time Pippa glances her way. They do not speak, beyond one forced introduction by a well-meaning mutual acquaintance. 

Hecate watches, proud where she knoes she has no right to be, as Pippa builds the school she always dreamed of. The school she spent nights describing under the canopies of their four poster beds, keeping an enraptured Hecate awake until the sun began to rise. She watches, and she pines, and she shuts her heart away within herself. 

Then Pippa is there, and they are speaking, and Hecate feels every wall she’s ever build begin to fracture. “Hiccup,” says Pippa, and Hecate’s heart leaps into her throat.

“Pipsqueak.”

It takes them weeks, months, to unpack all the years they missed and all the hurt they’ve caused. Hecate takes years to stop apologizing for every pain she imagines she’s caused, and Pippa takes decades before she can watch Hecate leave without dread pooling in the pit of her stomach. 

But. 

Imagine: Hecate, age 54. She is kissing Pippa, and she is smiling.

**Author's Note:**

> lemme know what u thought! drop me prompts in my inbox @the-gayest-witch-at-cackle on tumblr. love you all <3


End file.
